Carl Frederick Zeidler was the oldest child of Michael W. and Clara A. E. (Nitschke).
Zeidler was born in Milwaukee on 4 January 1908. His two brothers were Clemens and
Frank, and his sister was Dorothy. A 1925 graduate of West Division High School in
Milwaukee, he earned a Ph.B. at Marquette University in 1929 and a J.D. from there
as well in 1931. He also graduated from the Wisconsin College of Music in 1928.
Zeidler was also active in many organizations. He belonged to the Elks, Eagles,
Moose, Knights of Pythias, Army and Navy Union, Junior Chamber of Commerce, American
Legion, Steuben Society, Symphonic Male Chorus, Arion Musical Club, Masons, Turners,
Y's Men's Club, and others. Zeidler helped found and later led the Sunday Morning
Breakfast Club, a non-denomination organization of young men, in 1936.
Zeidler was named as assistant city attorney by City Attorney Walter J. Mattison in
1936. He worked on cases involving park consolidation, pinball, handbills and riots
at German-American Bund meetings, and was counsel for the Fire and Police Commission
and the police and fire pension boards. He resigned from the City Attorney's office
on 2 January 1940 in order to campaign for mayor. In the April election, Zeidler
defeated Mayor Hoan by 12,000 votes. During Zeidler's brief term as mayor, his
administration lowered the property tax rate, reduced expenditures for personnel,
consolidated some city departments, and hosted the national conventions of the
American Legion and the Eagles. Much attention was given to mobilization attendant
upon American involvement in World War II.
Zeidler's service as mayor was shortened by the American entrance into the Second
World War. Zeidler enlisted in the Naval Reserve in April 1942. Commissioned a
lieutenant, he commanded the gun crew on the armed merchant ship LaSalle, beginning in July 1942. His first cruise on the
LaSalle was highlighted by a gunnery attack on a
surfaced U-boat, which Zeidler claimed he had sunk. (The Navy discounted the claim.)
On Carl's second voyage in November 1942, the LaSalle
disappeared with all hands while carrying cargo to Cape Town, South Africa. Zeidler
was listed as "missing in action" until November 1944, when the Navy Department
officially declared him "dead." After the war, an unofficial German source claimed
that the LaSalle had been torpedoed and sunk by U-159
on 7 November 1942.
